Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

So-I came from Windows Phone. I'm taking a break. I need one. #JustSayin

Anyways, I'd like to know what is holding you back. No, I don't work for Microsoft. I'm just curious. So, I added a poll of the most common reasons people aren't switching. If you have another or have additional comments, PLEASE post it below.

THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW!

Also, I didn't really know exactly "where" to post this....so if it needs to be moved, SORRY.

Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

How about "It is from Microsoft, a company that opposes standards and makes crappy products. I will buy one just as soon as they support ODF, HTML5, and IMAP4 out of the box."

If you are inclined to spend a lot of money and want a pretty trophy with which to pass the next few years of your life that talks to you in a condescending voice, can't navigate to save its life, expects full control over all you do, demands $13 for a $3 purchase, allegedly has a single recessed button, needs an expensive computer and a credit card to do anything, hates your music and has purses designed just for it...

Get married to someone you hate... or get an iPhone.
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Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

How about "It is from Microsoft, a company that opposes standards and makes crappy products. I will buy one just as soon as they support ODF, HTML5, and IMAP4 out of the box."

Thanks for your open comment. Obviously we both have different views, but HTML5 is supported out of the box. It's even the best on Windows Phones. ODF? There has to be an app for that. IMAP4? I have never heard of that now.

Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

I really only use Android phones at the moment, but I did buy a HTC Surround a couple of years ago with the goal of being a media player (but the horrendous battery life killed that plan).

That said, I have used it as a main phone for about 6 months total in the time since purchasing it.

I really did like a lot of the use of the phone, and I thought that it had a lot going for it, and it's the only platform where I actually found myself keeping up with my friends Facebook activities.
I loved the image search and translation abilities.
The live tiles could be very useful (although the random pictures on the People tile annoyed me) but I think I like the deeper information my widgets give me.

The reasons why I can not make a Windows phone as my main driver are as follows (I really think they all pertain to WP8 even though I only spent time on WP7):
-Alternate gesture keyboards- I loath tapping on screen keyboards. I solely rely upon Swype as my keyboard of choice
-Tabbed Browsing or quick controls for the web browser- I exclusively either use Dolphin with the always available tabs or the standard Android Browser with the side quick controls. I find that they are the easiest methods of navigating the web and hated having to tap the button to see which tabs I had open. I also had other issues with the IE browser because I hated how it rendered text.
-An always available notification center is a must for me.
-Quick Settings Toggles are constantly used by me- I don't know if these were added in WP8 but my phones have the toggles in my drop down notification shade, so they are still much more accessible than being forced back to the homescreens.
-Back button behavior- It continually frustrated me when using WP7 that the back button would always go to the last visited app window. For instance, if I was on the internet with some music on I would want to go to the music app so I'd click on the music controls in the ringer settings. It would take me to the now playing window, but I could never use it to actually go select specific music. On my android phone, the back button will drill back down to the beginning of the app so I can easily change music.
-Quick navigation methods are lacking I find. I constantly use an app on my android phone called Swipepad that allows me to set 12-20 apps in a drawer that is opened by swiping from the top right of my screen. This allows me to access all of my main apps from ANYWHERE in my phone that I happen to be working in with just one touch. I also have access to my full app drawer in case I have any need for apps that aren't my main ones. I find that normally the standard recently used apps multitasking functions don't work for me.

Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

I really only use Android phones at the moment, but I did buy a HTC Surround a couple of years ago with the goal of being a media player (but the horrendous battery life killed that plan).

That said, I have used it as a main phone for about 6 months total in the time since purchasing it.

I really did like a lot of the use of the phone, and I thought that it had a lot going for it, and it's the only platform where I actually found myself keeping up with my friends Facebook activities.
I loved the image search and translation abilities.
The live tiles could be very useful (although the random pictures on the People tile annoyed me) but I think I like the deeper information my widgets give me.

The reasons why I can not make a Windows phone as my main driver are as follows (I really think they all pertain to WP8 even though I only spent time on WP7):
-Alternate gesture keyboards- I loath tapping on screen keyboards. I solely rely upon Swype as my keyboard of choice
-Tabbed Browsing or quick controls for the web browser- I exclusively either use Dolphin with the always available tabs or the standard Android Browser with the side quick controls. I find that they are the easiest methods of navigating the web and hated having to tap the button to see which tabs I had open. I also had other issues with the IE browser because I hated how it rendered text.
-An always available notification center is a must for me.
-Quick Settings Toggles are constantly used by me- I don't know if these were added in WP8 but my phones have the toggles in my drop down notification shade, so they are still much more accessible than being forced back to the homescreens.
-Back button behavior- It continually frustrated me when using WP7 that the back button would always go to the last visited app window. For instance, if I was on the internet with some music on I would want to go to the music app so I'd click on the music controls in the ringer settings. It would take me to the now playing window, but I could never use it to actually go select specific music. On my android phone, the back button will drill back down to the beginning of the app so I can easily change music.
-Quick navigation methods are lacking I find. I constantly use an app on my android phone called Swipepad that allows me to set 12-20 apps in a drawer that is opened by swiping from the top right of my screen. This allows me to access all of my main apps from ANYWHERE in my phone that I happen to be working in with just one touch. I also have access to my full app drawer in case I have any need for apps that aren't my main ones. I find that normally the standard recently used apps multitasking functions don't work for me.

Perhaps I am misunderstanding some of your points, I agree wholeheartedly that some of your points are detriments to the OS.
(WP8 has some nice improvements over WP7 and maybe I can provide a few pointers that might solve some of your difficulties.)
(Windows Phone 8 is my primary device now, specifically a Nokia Lumia 822, although I still dabble in Android devices from time to time)

-Alternate gesture keyboards are still not currently possible for WP8; while I like the Windows Phone's keyboards as they are responsive and fast with their word suggestions, keyboard additions such as Swype that Android has would be a very welcome addition. Wish they would add that.
-Internet Explorer for Windows Phone is one of its weak points, WP8 had many improvements over WP7, but Android easily bests Windows Phone in this arena. IE currently does have tabbed browsing, however it is hidden under a few swipes and instead should be present on the top and easily accessible. (However many Windows Phone users use a third-party browser [I believe its name is UC Browser] that has tabs up front and for many users, functions much better than the default Internet Explorer)
-Settings: I'm not sure why you found settings to be difficult, I feel settings can be accessed anywhere with one swipe. Additionally, you can pin the settings tile to the home screen and instantly access them if need be. Within an app, typically you can swipe up from any screen and have all app settings/options immediately available to you. Maybe this was a WP7 restriction, or perhaps I misunderstand your difficulty.
-Back Button: One thing some people miss is that if you hold down the Back Button in Windows Phone it zooms out to a tabbed view of all previously opened applications. In this manner you could quickly change music and then resume Internet Explorer or etc. There are a few quirks with the back button, and although you can view the music now playing screen through playing controls in the ringer settings that seems like a very unwieldy method to navigating applications. (Again maybe I've misunderstand your difficulty or intent)

Windows Phone is still pretty fresh to the market. Personally I really enjoy the OS. It has its shortcoming but for how young the OS is, I feel it still has a lot of potential. It has a lot of room for growth and improvement however, but for now it does just fine for me. If it doesn't continue to mature though, I may switch back to Android. Hopefully I helped with a few pointers, perhaps, if not, sorry for misunderstanding!

Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

I was looking at the Nokia Lumia 520, instead of a cheap "landfill Android" phone. I stopped considering it when I discovered that mobile IE doesn't do text reflow. There may be other problems - I didn't look much further.
Windows Phone has been in the market for almost three years old now. There's really no excuse to lack such a basic feature. I also noticed that none of my friends who bought a Windows Phone stuck with it. All have since upgraded to Android or iOS.

Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

Originally Posted by TrophyNostalgia

-Internet Explorer for Windows Phone is one of its weak points, WP8 had many improvements over WP7, but Android easily bests Windows Phone in this arena. IE currently does have tabbed browsing, however it is hidden under a few swipes and instead should be present on the top and easily accessible. (However many Windows Phone users use a third-party browser [I believe its name is UC Browser] that has tabs up front and for many users, functions much better than the default Internet Explorer)
-Settings: I'm not sure why you found settings to be difficult, I feel settings can be accessed anywhere with one swipe. Additionally, you can pin the settings tile to the home screen and instantly access them if need be. Within an app, typically you can swipe up from any screen and have all app settings/options immediately available to you. Maybe this was a WP7 restriction, or perhaps I misunderstand your difficulty.
-Back Button: One thing some people miss is that if you hold down the Back Button in Windows Phone it zooms out to a tabbed view of all previously opened applications. In this manner you could quickly change music and then resume Internet Explorer or etc. There are a few quirks with the back button, and although you can view the music now playing screen through playing controls in the ringer settings that seems like a very unwieldy method to navigating applications. (Again maybe I've misunderstand your difficulty or intent)

Yes, I understand that there are tabs in the WP8 IE browser. My issue is that the access to them is hidden in at least two button taps. I believe I mentioned that I use Dolphin so I always have my tabs available to switch between. I am constantly jumping between tabs doing multiple things so it is a huge hassle to use any other browser and I loathe using Safari as well for this reason even though it claims to have "tabbed browsing".

I apologize, by the quick settings access I actually mean switches and toggles to adjust the phones settings, not app settings. I mean for instance, if you are going from outside to a dark room I'd want to turn down the brightness. On my Android phone I just pull down the notification screen and tap the Brightness toggle. On WP8 I'd have to go to the home screen, go to settings, and adjust it. This is a pain in the rear. Likewise I have my Flashlight, Airplane Mode, Battery Level, Bluetooth, Wifi, and GPS toggles always accessible from anywhere in the OS via my notification shade, which is impossible on WP8.

My issue that I pointed out with trying to get to the start of the Zune app actually occurs because of my probable ADD when using my phones. I'll be listening to music, and I'll be going through the OS doing random things such as surfing the internet, playing games, using Office, checking status updates, and anything else until I find that I want to listen to another music mix. I open the multitasking window with my long press on the back button and find that the Zune app has fallen off my recently used apps in there. In order to do anything but pause my music or go to the next track I have to exit back to the home screen and then open up Zune to then go back to the beginning. On my android phones I just press the back button and it's much simpler.

Re: Tell me your thoughts about Windows Phones

I switched from wp8 to Android a few days ago, and I'm really happy with Android, I had the Nokia Lumia 920 even though this phone is awesome the OS is holding it back. WP is lacking in apps, the hardware isn't that much impressive either. I'm happy with my LG optimum G Pro with Android 4.1, I'm never going back to Windows phone unless microsoft gets there act together.

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